Fantasy Realism

"You should be here; he's simply magnificent." These are the final words a biologist hears before his Margaret Mead-like wife dies at the hands of Godzilla. The words haunt him as he studies the kaiju (Japan's giant monsters) on an island reserve, attempting to understand the beauty his wife saw. Every story in the collection turns to the fantastic, the mysticism of the past, and the absurdities of the future to illuminate the spaces we occupy when we are at our most vulnerable."

The world of culinary magic is about to implode as the greatest threat to their secret existence is carried—well, dragged—into this delectable second installment of the Hex Kitchen series. Kidnapped by the very group meant to protect her, Kenzie finds herself in another cooking tournament. This time, though, the stakes are higher. Every meal she cooks could be her last. If she’s going to survive, she’ll need to do the one thing she swore she’d never do again. Use her magic to kill. Braxton is facing his own battle. Each step that brings him closer to Kenzie jeopardizes his family....

In "Books and Roses", one special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers' fates. In "Is Your Blood as Red as This?", an unlikely key opens the heart of a student at a puppeteering school. "'Sorry' Doesn't Sweeten Her Tea" involves a "house of locks", where doors can be closed only with a key - with surprising unobservable developments. And in "If a Book Is Locked There's Probably a Good Reason for That Don't You Think", a key keeps a mystical diary locked (for good reason).

Veronica Langley just found out she was a soul keeper. She couldn't help but feel uneasy, but as this story progresses, she'll learn more about herself than she could ever imagine.

Necropolis follows Sajan Dayal, a detective in pursuit of a serial (though nonlethal) collector of fingers. He encounters would-be vampires and werewolves, and a woman named Razia who may or may not be centuries old.

A cursed violin, a witch with a shattered past, and the enemy sworn to silence her magic. Isadora Valen hides her power behind sugared pastries and enchantments whispered into the crust. But when forbidden magic flares during the Veil Festival, she’s marked by the realm’s most sacred relic—and by the man ordered to destroy her. Lachlan Daeven is a royal warden bound by duty and scarred by betrayal. Hunting rogue mages is what he does best. But when Isadora’s magic intertwines with his own, a soulbond sparks—violent, undeniable, and impossible to sever. She’s a fugitive with a ...

Beach wedding and a murder… Throw in an angry mermaid threatening to destroy the wedding! FREE on Kindle Unlimited! There’s trouble in Paradise, and the Rowling family is on the case. The island wedding of Mandy’s BFF Fiona and famous exorcist Brian Powers becomes the backdrop for a murder investigation when the body of a notorious loan shark is found in the dunes. But how did a man drown so far from the water? An angry mermaid threatens to wreak havoc if the killer isn’t caught, but with no spirits to question, does Mandy stand a ghost of a chance to solve the case? Find out in ...

Living in a peaceful, prosperous African-American neighborhood in Los Angeles, Mack Street is a mystery child who has somehow found a home. Discovered abandoned in an overgrown park, raised by a blunt-speaking single woman, Mack comes and goes from family to family, a boy who is surrounded by boisterous characters and yet deeply alone.

What is truth when nothing is real Hidden away in the Gulf of Mexico lies an island with a dark past. Once a haven for bootleggers and outlaws, Oyster Island now hosts the renovated Majestic Hotel & Casino. It’s not only the living that calls this place home. Ghosts, ghouls, and creatures of the night roam freely, haunting the island’s residents and visitors. One fateful night, a magical flying unicorn visits Odette Mouton and takes her on a wild ride to the island’s backside, where she discovers a time portal. Guided by a time-walking calico cat, she embarks on a journey that blurs ...

One man is the key to getting everything I want. When I met Captain Aras of the Tiger's Claw, I started hearing a voice. Just one. Still, hearing a voice in your head, other than that of your own thoughts, is not something a sane person experiences. This voice claimed to belong to a Dragon relic called Ensarena's Eye. I was skeptical at first, but it quickly proved itself to me. The Eye wants me to wield it. It claims that only through it can I win the inter-dread war that's brewing. So I accepted Captain Aras's offer to procure Ensarena's Eye for me. But on his way back to me, the Tiger's ...

In the sultry, shadowed streets of New Orleans, where jazz drifts through iron-laced balconies and secrets fester beneath the Spanish moss, four extraordinary women are drawn together by fate—and a touch of the supernatural. Welcome to The Order of the Midnight Bloom , an urban fantasy series that will sweep you into a world where life, death, and everything in between blur like smoke on a moonlit night. Rose and Gail, society mavens and proprietors of their family’s historic funeral parlor, have built lives steeped in tradition—but nothing could prepare them for what lies beyond the ...

Jon thought it was over...he was wrong. It was just the beginning. When he defeated the beast tide, he thought peace would come. But whatever he thinks never happens. The expansion he triggered attracted a much larger threat that he can't control.

Down on your luck doesn't always mean down and out When an Oklahoma cattle rancher hires P.I. Buck McDivit to investigate a gory murder committed by something not quite human and a rural community populated by pagan women, he has to think fast or end up dead. Though no choir boy, Buck is unprepared for his role as the lone male participant in a spring equinox fertility ceremony. The only thing worse for the paranormal cowboy than having no woman is too many women - or maybe being eaten alive by a supernatural black panther.

Leigh Chen Sanders is absolutely certain about one thing: When her mother died by suicide, she turned into a bird. Leigh, who is half Asian and half white, travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents for the first time. There, she is determined to find her mother, the bird. In her search, she winds up chasing after ghosts, uncovering family secrets, and forging a new relationship with her grandparents.

In the small mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm - and the mysterious curse that has haunted them for generations. The madness that led to Susanna Farrow's disappearance left her daughter, June, to be raised by her grandmother. Everyone in Jasper is certain it's only a matter of time before she finds the same end, but June has kept secret that her unravelling has already begun.

A Captivating Short Story Inspired by Innuit Legend and The Modern Day Plight of The Polar Bear. Journey into a world where an ancient spirit walks among mortals, and the balance of nature hangs by a delicate thread. Immerse yourself in a mesmerizing narrative that weaves together the captivating stories of Nanuk, the Polar Bear Shapeshifter Goddess, and the clash of cultures in the icy realms of Greenland. Witness the legacy of a young Inuit hunter chosen by destiny, the intricate magic of totems holding ancestral power, and the plight of the Arctic bears facing extinction at the hands of ...

Claire Walker has always had her life in perfect order, including her high-powered job at one of Manhattan’s top corporate law firms. Yet the one thing she cannot seem to find is a perfect love to complete it, until fate pushes Matías de León into her path. Matías is a Spanish artist who is everything that Claire is not: free-spirited and creative, chaos to her order. She falls for him, hard—and he for her. A year later, however, Claire begins to question everything about their relationship.

Summer, 1994. Trevor can barely wrap his mind around the fact that he and his friends have graduated high school. And yet there’s no rush to get to college. He’s determined to live one night at a time. Riding shotgun from party to party, windows down, music up, his focus is entirely on his crush, the enigmatic girl in the driver’s seat. Will things ever go anywhere with Sarah? Maybe? Because Sarah has proposed a mission: They’re going to swim all the pools in town. Before long, they’re sneaking into backyards every night, splashing, floating, and loving every minute of it.

Emer is just a woman living in New York City who takes the subway, buys ice cream from the bodega on the corner, has writerly aspirations, and lives with her boyfriend, Con. But is this life she lives the only path she’s on?

Launching into new territory that the author hadn’t mapped out when he embarked on the series, Nekomonogatari (White) tells the tale of heroine Tsubasa Hanekawa from her own perspective, in her own voice - if that can hold true for a damaged soul who, depending on who you’re asking, suffers from a split personality or a supernatural aberration.